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The online gambling industry was abuzz when Zynga announced that they decided not to pursue real-money online gambling opportunities in the US to focus on free-to-play social games. In line with this, we asked our readers last week if Zynga made the right move dropping their gambling ambitions.
60% of the voters answered NO – They missed on a goldmine. If Zynga did pursue real-money games, poker for example, they’d only be able to operate in Nevada – for now. But with millions of free-to-play players, if they executed everything properly then they could convert a good number to real-money players.
40% of the voters said YES – They couldn’t compete. With Zynga’s Q2 earnings that dropped by 31%, and their daily active users dropping 24% from Q1, they probably took this as a hint that venturing into real-money would be a huge gamble for them.
They have a product that works and although the decision not to pursue real-money games isn’t forever off the table, Zynga is in the middle of a significant platform transition right now. Although free-to-play games won’t rake in as much cash as real-money games, they’d still make money through ‘freemiums’.
For next week’s poll, we decided to ask our readers how will the DiCristina ruling affect poker regulation. Let us know if you think it has made regulation tougher, easier or if it made no difference at all.